In Primavera P6, Activity Steps allow you to break activities down into smaller units of work. For more complicated tasks, steps allow you to specify exactly what needs to get done – like a to-do list. Instead of adding more activities to the schedule, you can give your tasks more definition with steps. You can add individual steps to activities, or add predefined groups of steps based on templates.

Activity steps make it possible to track work that you cannot easily sequence. For example, let’s say you have an activity to install several columns. Due to the available resources, you plan to install only one column at a time. With just an activity named Form Columns, no one would know the order or the progress of the installations. Using steps, however, you could break this activity down to specify the various column installations.

Steps also make it easier to update the status of a complex activity. Typically, when statusing activities in progress, you’ll need to specify a percent complete for the task as a whole. This can sometimes be difficult to estimate – especially if the activity incorporates various sub-tasks. With steps, however, you can update the activity based on the individual steps completed. As you complete steps, the percent complete for the activity will update accordingly.

In this article, we will take a look at how to use Activity Steps in Primavera P6 Professional. First, we’ll go over how to set up the project to allow for the use of steps. Then, we’ll look at how to add steps to an activity and use them to mark progress. The following examples are from Primavera P6 Professional 20. However, these tools are available within all versions of Primavera P6.

Setting Up the Project for Activity Steps

In order to use steps in Primavera P6, you may need to adjust some project and activity data.

Adjusting the Project Percent Complete Calculation

First, you have to tell P6 that you are planning to use steps in the project. To do this, navigate to the Projects screen and select the desired project from the list. Then, click on the Calculations tab within the Details section.

Under Activities, check the box for Activity Percent Complete Based on Activity Steps. This is important, as this box is typically deselected by default. Checking this box will tell P6 that you’re planning to mark progress using steps, instead of a manually entered percent complete.

A window will open to confirm that the activity’s physical percent complete will now recalculate based on the added steps. Press Yes to continue.

Adjusting the Activity Percent Complete Type

Next, you will need to set the Percent Complete Type for any activity with steps to Physical. This tells the program that this activity’s progress should be based on work physically completed – rather than duration spent. To adjust an activity’s Percent Complete Type, navigate to the Activities screen. Select the desired activity from the table, and use the General tab within the Details section.

Under the % Complete Type field, select Physical. You’ll need to repeat this for any activity that you plan on adding steps to.

Setting up the Steps Layout

Lastly, before adding activity steps, you need to set up the layout for it. This is also done within the Activities screen, under the Steps tab within the Details section.

The Steps tab displays two sides. On the left side, you can add the activity’s steps and determine their weightings. On the right side, you can add specifications – such as instructions – for each step.

By default, only two columns will display in the Steps list. Before adding steps, I recommend adding a few more columns by right clicking within the list and selecting Customize Steps Columns.

Select the double arrow button to move all columns from Available Options to Selected Options.

You’ll now see columns for Step % Complete, Step Weight, and Step Weight Percent. These columns will all come into play as you start defining the step and updating its progress.

Adding Activity Steps

With your layout setup, you can now add steps to your activities. To add steps, select the desired activity from the table. In this example, I’ll select the activity Write Specifications. In the Steps tab within the Details section, select Add to add a step to the activity.

I’ll add 5 steps to Write Specifications:

• Submit Initial Spec
• Review Initial Spec
• Revise Initial Spec 
• Final Review 
• Final Revision

You can add as many steps as needed to describe the activity’s work.

Next, move over to the Step Weight column. Here, you’ll specify the weight of the step proportional to the other added steps.

The Step Weight helps to distribute the percentage of each step in the activity accordingly. Typically, the Step Weight is a numerical value indicating the portion of activity work that the step represents. The higher the value you enter, the greater the importance of the step in the activity.

When you begin updating the activity, P6 will use these step weights to calculate the percent complete for the activity as a whole. As you add step weights, you’ll notice that the Step Percent Complete column will adjust as well. The Step Percent Complete column will show the percentage of work the step represents. As you begin marking steps as completed, the Step Percent Complete values will guide the Activity Percent Complete value. This allows the Activity Percent Complete to automatically update based on the steps completed.

In this example, I’ll add the following weights to the Write Specifications steps:

• Submit Initial Spec – 10.0
• Review Initial Spec – 2.0
• Revise Initial Spec – 5.0
• Final Review – 2.0
• Final Revision – 5.0

It doesn’t matter what numbers you use – you could use numbers 1-10 or 1-100. All that matters is that the numbers are proportionate to one another. Once you begin updating the progress of the steps, these values will help determine the overall Activity Percent Complete.

Performing Status Updates Using Steps

With steps added, let’s now take a look at how to use them to perform status updates. To start, select the activity from the table and navigate to the Status tab within the Details section. Let’s say that at this point, the activity has started but is still in progress. Like you would with a typical activity, check off the Started box to show that the task has started. Then, adjust the start date to the date that the activity actually started.

For activities with steps, you’ll now enter in progress using the Steps tab. For any completed step, select the Completed box. In this example, we have submitted and reviewed the initial specifications, so I’ll check off the Completed box for both these steps.

As you mark steps as completed, the Activity Percent Complete will change accordingly. For each step completed, the Step Percent Complete will add to the Activity Percent Complete, driving the activity’s completion. From the Activity % Complete column, I can see that Write Specifications is now 50% complete. As you complete additional steps, this percentage will continue to adjust.

After completing the steps, you will also want to adjust the activity’s Remaining Duration. As we saw earlier, activities must use the Physical Percent Complete type to use steps. With this Percent Complete type, the percent complete of the activity will not drive the remaining duration. Instead, you’ll need to manually enter in the amount of remaining days expected until completion. You can do this using the Remaining Duration cell in the table, or the field within the Status tab of the Details section.

Summary

In Primavera P6, Activity Steps let you break your activities down into smaller chunks of work. This helps to both cut down the intricacy of larger schedules and allow for more activity definition. Steps are especially useful for tracking the progress of complex activities. Instead of having to estimate a percent complete for the activity as a whole, P6 will calculate this for you based on the steps complete. With Activity Steps, you can easily sequence and track complex activities, without complicating the overall schedule.

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Lauren Hecker is the instructor for the Primavera P6 Professionals training courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!